Mt. Baker, Washington, United States

When I got the invite to go back to the Pacific Northwest and climb Mt. Baker, I was ecstatic. I’ve done a bit of mountaineering in the northern Cascades and have played on the slopes of Mt. Baker in the past but had never been to the top. The trip was with MSR to check out their spring 2017 product line including a number of new tents, cooking utensils, water filtration and stoves. It was the perfect setting.

Finland

I love to travel, but I really love to travel for long perids and to have a strong education component mixed in. Here’s a quick recap of a program I got hired to help with taking 20 Principia College students to Finland for about two months. They were mostly education students and the abroad focused on the Finnish Education system as well as their sustainability efforts. We traveled nearly the whole length of Finland and spent a good amount of time in the Arctic. It was a dream come true.

Whitetail Peak, Beartooth Range, Red Lodge, Montana, United States

Not ten minutes into the trail and suddenly we were forced to retreat into our rain coats. Then, to further impede our progress, lightning flash and thunder strikes right over our heads pushed us to find some shelter amongst the sparse clumps of standing trees. In 2008, the human ignited Cascade fire ripped through here burning over 10,000 acres. Charred bits still peak through the foliage that has since grown back and we have plenty of time to ponder the lightning over our head and the fire it can cause as we wait for the storm to pass. Sixty percent of the fires in the Beartooths are caused by lightning strike.

Bella Coola, Canada

While I spent most of my teen years in the Pacific Northwest, my only real foray into British Columbia was up to Vancouver, Victoria and Whistler a few times. This time, I got to go a little further north. About half way between Washington State and Alaska lies the beautiful Bella Coola Valley. It’s at the end of a 70-mile fjord and the mountains continue to climb from there.

Bermuda

I’m not much of a beach person. Sure, I beach bummed it a bit in San Diego before moving to Colorado, but I was never passionate about the beach. But Bermuda was different. Instead of just lounging around we had a lot of fun exploring the island in some creative and fun ways.

Vail, Colorado, United States

I’ve been having a bunch of fun making Instagram videos of late. I would say “quick” Instagram videos, but I don’t always turn them around as fast as I’d like. After the GoPro Mountain Games in Vail I had a bunch of footage after competing in three different events. We started the day paddling down Gore Creek. I managed to get a video of that published shortly after the weekend, but not the videos of the Bad Ass Dash obstacle course or the XC Mountain Bike race. Finally, those are done and if you didn’t catch them on Instagram, I’ve compiled the three into a YouTube video here:

Magallanes, Los Lagos & Aysen, Chile

Chile is a land of many adventures from mountain biking to wine tours, from skiing to white water rafting, from hot springs to mountaineering. I joined a group of seasoned adventurers to explore the three southern most regions of Chile: Los Lagos, Aysen & Magallanes. Each of them host varying stages of tourism development, adrenaline rush, cultural interactions to cater to the interest of any traveler or explorer.

One of the most interesting lessons I learned about was where the name Patagonia came from. Magellen created the term for the indigenous inhabitants of the southern reaches of South America because they were larger in stature that his crew, indeed, than Europeans at the time. How does Patagonia, or rather Patagon as Magellan documented it, relate to large people? Well, like many such words the etymology is fuzzy, but one story refers to Magellan and his crew first seeing the footprints of these people (believed to have been the Tehuelches people). This may be a stretch, but Pata is phonetically close to “pede” from the Latin for foot (as in “pedestrian” or “pedal”) and “-gon” makes me think of giant or another word that refers to something large with a “-gon” ending, dragon. Anyway, Click through to the full story for more photos and the videos I produced from the adventure.

Mt. Rainier, Washington, United States

It was awesome to get back to the Great Pacific Northwest to climb Mt. Rainier again. This is my third summit of Rainier and it was a beautiful day on the top. My previous climbs have been as a private climber so this was my first time going with a guide outfit like RMI Expeditions. Since we had some first time climbers with us, our first day was Mountaineering School. We hiked up to a snowfield and practiced self arrest, walking in crampons and other mountaineering skills. The next day we hiked all our gear up to Camp Muir at 10,000 ft. After lying down for a stint from 6pm to 11pm we geared up and made a push for the summit.

Swakopmund, Windhoek & The Caprivi, Namibia

This trip to Namibia in Africa was pretty incredible. It’s a long haul to get down there but once there the long flights are quickly forgotten. Namibia has some diverse environments. We started our trip on the coast in Swakopmund and drove north to the controversial seal colony that stunk to high heaven, but was very interesting to see. From there we drove inland to the capital Windhoek to see a little more cosmopolitan version of the country for some meetings. Finally, for the bulk of the trip we flew north to the Caprivi region where we went on game tracking walks, learned about how the local community manages its own natural resources, went on safari drives and boat rides, dugout canoe trips, visited a local chief, crossed over to Botswana and saw lots of wildlife. And this isn’t even the high season to see wildlife. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to get back there when literally thousands of animals can be seen at once. Naturally, there are photos and videos. Click to the full story for the first video of the coastal visit. Stay tuned to my YouTube channel for more.

The Black Hole of White Canyon, Canyonlands, Utah, United States

Doug, my editor at Elevation Outdoors Magazine, stopped by to borrow my LifeProof iPhone case because he was going canyoning in Utah for the next few days. He showed me some photos of where they were going: The Black Hole of White Canyon. My eyes opened wide. My jaw dropped. “That looks awesome.” I said.